by Steve Simons
Paul laughs at the thought that his task would be made easier if he had a torch with him. He carefully picks his way back up the hill scanning both sides of his route as he slowly progresses upwards. Ironic really isn't it, Paul rolls down the hill and saves himself the effort of the climb down, but then because of the loss of his torch he has to not only climb down but up again, to retrieve the lost torch. Paul just hopes that he finds the torch sooner rather than later. He keeps stopping to ensure that he is still following his predicted roll down route. Again Paul laughs as he thinks, that he could always lie down and roll back down once he has found the torch. As the pain from the bruises remind him, it would not really be an advisable option to take.
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Chapter 14 Challenges
With torch now in hand, Paul does not relish the trek back down the hill. Typical that the torch just had to be near the top of the hill. Paul decides to sit down and take a rest as he's out of breath again. As he sits, he looks around him surveying the surrounding buildings. He can just make out another patch of wilderness, if you could call this area of scrubby land by such a title, the other patch is off behind another of the see through buildings to the right of him. The current stretch of land narrows into a thinnish strip with streams of liquid on both sides, then it widens out again when it gets to the other side of the building to the right of Paul. He wonders if these patches of land are at regular intervals, he had not noticed them as he was coming into land, but then he was more fascinated by the structures. Paul surveys the buildings around him, there appears to be no activity at all within them. The aliens obviously sleep when its dark, no shift work for them. They are obviously not worried that Paul is going to get up to much mischief, after all he has heard no search party activity, since the sun went down. As Paul surveys the buildings and tries to appreciate how many workstations, if that is what they are; he comes to the conclusion that there must be thousands of aliens in just the small area that surrounds him currently. If it came to an all out battle, Paul wouldn't stand an earthly against this lot. His success just has to rest in stealth and his ability to move at night. If only those structures weren't transparent then he would have places to hide, but as they are, there is not a chance of finding somewhere within or just outside of the structures. His only hiding places seemed to be where there was scrub land like this. But even this was not great, if there were enough aliens searching, they would soon find him.
Paul's attention again turns to the stars as he stares up fascinated at the collections of stars. He wonders if like early man, he can make out recognisable shapes in the night sky of this planet. This occupies him for a while until he feels strong enough to attempt the downward climb. Oh by the way, Paul had identified some sort of spiral of stars that he nicknamed The slinky constellation , named after that toy that fascinates children so much, because of its ability to walk down stairs.
The walk down the hill is uneventful, although painful. Paul stops several times to get his breath back. He is really glad to reach ground level again and without further delay sets off in the direction of the other structures, he hopes that he reaches these before daylight.
~~ Later ~~
There is an alien guarding the entrance, but unfortunately the entrance, has a good view right across the frontage of the building. Paul has a good look around, hoping to spot, a way to either get into the building or past it somehow, but there is nothing obvious. The causeway that leads to the building, appears to be the only way across to it and is clearly visible from the entrance. Just how is Paul going to get to the other side of that building, he can't get into it and therefore, through it. There's no obvious way around it.
Paul decides to keep behind the shrubs and head around to the other side of the causeway. It takes him quite a while, as the ground is uneven with irregular bumps and dips. Added to this Paul almost passes out once or twice. As a consequence, Paul has to take a lot of breaks to get his breath back.
Finally, Paul has passed the end of the causeway, and is now looking towards the end corner of the building. The scrubby land heads on round the side of the building and Paul decides he has no option, but to follow this scrub land further on round. He keeps behind the plants and rocks. This means that he has to climb up and down the hill, as there is no flat path, that isn't exposed to view from the building. Once or twice Paul thought that the guard had seen him, as it had turned to face Paul, stopped and appeared to be staring. But after what seemed like an interminable wait, it would turn away again, continuing its scan of the surrounding landscape. Paul is most glad when he is finally out of view of the entrance. For one thing, he doesn't need to stay behind the plants and keep following the contours of the rocky hill, instead he can follow the much flatter path near the pond.
Another bend rounded and Paul is most delighted to see another causeway comes into view and heads right behind the building. Paul cannot wait to get to the other side of the building, but he has been walking solidly for some time now, he decides that he has to take a rest before passing out again. He finds a comfortable spot beside a plant and sits down. The plant affords him some shadow, useful if one of he aliens just happens along, less chance of Paul getting spotted. Paul is so comfortable that he soon finds himself drifting off to sleep. He knows he has been asleep, as he jerks awake, something has disturbed him, but he doesn't know what it was. He cautiously looks about himself, but sees nothing out of the ordinary, or at least nothing that is exceptional here. Paul still wonders what had woken him up. Paul gets up, it takes him some time to get to his feet, he's quite stiff, that must have been some sleep. He remembers that his target was that causeway further along. Soon Paul is heading towards his target again. Suddenly he hears a splashing noise coming from the pond. He wonders whether he should back away from the pond or check out what is making the noise. Curiosity gets the better of him, especially as there's more splashing going on. Paul arrives at the side of the pond. Apart from ripples, there's nothing obviously visible. Paul stares at the liquid's surface for a while, then suddenly there's a splash and Paul just catches the outline of something darting back under the water, closely followed by something else. At first Paul thought it was part of the same creature, but then realises that the second one was heading in a different direction. Paul wonders if it was two of the eel like creature that he had encountered earlier. There is another splash further out. Paul has lost interest now and instead resumes his hike towards the new causeway.
The causeway is soon reached and Paul is delighted to see that whilst there is an entrance this side of the building, there appears to be no guard on duty. The ground, to the the left of the the other side of the causeway, rises higher than the rest of the ground that side of the causeway. Paul wonders if it is hiding anything, like a craft or two. He just has to investigate, but he knows that once he is walking across that causeway he will be quite exposed and easy to spot. Paul decides to look around for anything that he can use as camouflage. After much hunting around, Paul finds some large leaves laying on the ground, he tries them out for size, he uses the pond as a mirror to test out their effectiveness as camouflage. He is pleased with effect and decides that there is no time to waste.
Paul stoops down, raising the leaves into the desired position and heads for the causeway. He takes his time getting across, after all he doesn't want to to be spotted. Once on the other side, he surveys the whole length of the building, to make sure there are no aliens looking out. After a careful, long survey, Paul comes to the conclusion that the coast is clear. Still stooping down and using the camouflage, Paul climbs the slope. As he is reaching the top, he suddenly feels dizzy again and has to stop. It is a real strain to concentrate on keeping his camouflage in place. Suddenly he has the strange feeling that someone is watching him. You know that unmistakable feeling that you just can't put your finger on, yet you somehow know you are being watched. He carefully scans the build
ing again, but finds it difficult as he is still feeling quite dizzy.
Paul's gaze reaches one particular window and he spots one of the aliens looking straight at him. Despite the fact that there are four eyes, looking in various directions, Paul knows that the alien has seen him and is watching intently. It suddenly dawns on Paul, that his camouflage has actually given him away. As he looks at the slope before him, he realises that there are no plants on it, with the exception of himself. He must now stand out like a sore thumb.
Just what can Paul do? Shortly the alien will stop its staring activities and raise the alarm. Paul tries to convince himself that the aliens may not be able to see well in the dark. But that sense that he had that someone was watching him, must have been based on something, other than possibly catching a glimpse out of the corner of his own eyes of the alien standing there. The alien is now moving away from the window, presumably going to raise the alarm or come out here itself to investigate. In either case, Paul cannot just sit here, he has to retreat somewhere. He decides to continue heading up the slope. Shortly he can see over the top and down the other side.
'Jackpot!' thinks Paul to himself, as he sees three gleaming circular craft similar to the one he had travelled here in. He soon finds himself running down the slope on the other side. He heads towards the first craft, changes his mind and heads towards the closer of the other two craft. The design has changed somewhat, the craft are considerably larger, the entrance is now on the side of the craft and the door trigger has some sort of coloured design so that it stands out more making it quicker to detect. The side of this craft carries some sort of fancy graphic design, which Paul quite likes the look of. He hopes, as he triggers the door, that there is no-one inside. As the door slides open, there is no movement from within and no obvious signs of anyone in the shadows. As Paul approaches the doorway, lights come on inside and make the craft feel quite welcoming. Paul climbs up into the craft and once inside he looks for the door closing bump. Which he quickly sees and manages to trigger. This newer design seems much more responsive and easier to use.
The internal layout of the craft is considerably different from the one Paul had travelled in. As he enters there are doors to the left and right and one right in front of him. The door behind him closes. Whilst Paul is slightly nervous about being trapped, he views the experience of exploring this craft as quite exciting. He decides to open the door to his left first. This reveals racks of weapons, similar to the one Paul has in his bag. Apart from a few other pieces of equipment, nothing much exciting here. Paul triggers the door to the right of him and sees a reasonable sized room with several suits all hanging neatly, with boots below each suit. There's a door at the end to the left. Paul triggers closure of both doors. Then turns his attention to the one that faced him as he boarded the craft. This opens to reveal a corridor leading to left and right.
Paul cautiously peeps into the corridor. No aliens in sight. There are doors to left and right, but only on his side of the corridor. The one to the right must lead into the suits storage area. So Paul decides to ignore that and heads off to the left instead. He is quite surprised at the spaciousness of the room that lies beyond the first door. It appears to be some sort of office or meeting room, with chairs dotted around. Paul closes the door and walks on down the corridor. As he rounds the bend, he sees that there is a door at the end of the corridor, a further two doors on the left hand side and one on the right. Paul decides to ignore the one on the right and concentrate on the two doors on the left. He has a feeling that the one to the right is just a storage area. Paul arrives at the next door on the left, when he opens this, he is surprised to see that it is a cabin, similar to the one he had seen on the previous craft, except this one has more in it, looks more comfortable and it has a window. The next door, again leads to another cabin, exactly like the first. When Paul emerges from this he has a choice, to retrace his steps and test out the door on the opposite side of the corridor or go on through the door at the end. Paul decides he'll stick to his decision to ignore the door on the right hand side. As he triggers the door at the end of the corridor he expects the worse, there may be two aliens the other side of this door, after all he had just come across two cabins. Paul is quite surprised however, when he sees that it leads to another stretch of corridor. The first door is quite some way away, but he soon reaches it and prepares for the worst. But again he is delighted to see that the room is devoid of aliens. This room is clearly the control room and has several workstations in it. Paul is tempted to explore it in detail, but decides he can do this later. He must assure himself first that the ship is empty.
The next four doors to the left of the corridor, just before yet another door at the end, lead to cabins. There is a single door to the right, which Paul leaves until last. When he opens this door, he is quite surprised at the sight that meets his eyes, there is all sorts of interconnected equipment inside. It seems to be some highly technical equipment, possibly the engines or power plant, although it is making no noise and seems to be totally inactive. There are controls on the wall beside the door. Paul can see another doorway opposite, this must be the door that he had seen in the first corridor. Paul just hopes that with the addition of this equipment, room and controls, it hasn't made the flying of this craft even more complex.
Paul turns his attention back to his exploration and checking activities. Whilst he has no idea exactly where he is in the craft, he gets the feeling that he must be getting back near to the entrance. Paul opens the door at the end of the corridor. There are three doors to the left and none to the right, but he notices markings on the wall to the right, that he had seen when he first entered, so chances are that this is back to the entrance area. Paul opens the first door to the left and finds a largish room, with several seats inside. A couple of them have screens attached to the chairs. There seem to be what seem like a couple of vending machines at one end of the room. There are some nice large windows, giving excellent views outside. The next door along leads into the suits room that he had seen earlier. So he reaches the conclusion that he has come full circle and that this little baby is all his.
Paul feels rather dizzy again, so decides to go back to the last large room that he had been in. A chance to sit down and have another drink, the last one he has in his bag. Now that sounds very final.
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Chapter 15 Harm?
The touch on Paul's face is soft and unexpected. Paul's breathing is somewhat laboured again and that dizziness, despite the fact that Paul has been asleep, has not gone away this time . Which makes Paul wonder if he had only just fallen asleep and been awoken early. The touch on his face, just what was that? It must have been the cause of Paul waking up earlier than he normally would. He opens his eyes and to his horror, there's an alien standing in front of him, in fact bent over him. However, it does not look intent on doing horrible things to him, whilst its face, is not as expressive as that of a human; they say you can tell a lot from someone's eyes and it was the same with this alien. There's a little, what would you call it? A sparkle, that's it a sparkle, in its eyes. The alien appears to have a look of concern. It retracts its hand gently and slowly. That's when Paul spots the light being emitted from an oval area of one of it's figures, it has four fingers, two opposing two, rather than the single opposing thumb that humans have. Paul thought that it would seem quite strange to have this arrangement of two opposing two fingers, but as he sees the alien move its hand, it seems quite natural.
The alien stands up and seems to be making some sort of gestures with its arms and hands. It keeps making sweeping movements towards the door and seems to be indicating that Paul walk out through it. It is then that Paul sees the other two aliens behind the first. They both have weapons and they are pointed straight at..... straight at Paul!
Although Paul feels really groggy, he stands up and attempts to walk towards the door and promptly collapses
. The alien closest to him, manages to catch him before he hits the floor.
When Paul next comes to, he finds that he is being carried. Again he is surprised that the alien's skin is smooth and not rough, as the bumpy skin would seem to indicate. Furthermore, Paul is surprised to see that it is daylight again. He is about to struggle, when he catches sight of the weapon that is clearly being pointed at him, by one of the other aliens following. Paul looks at the face of the alien carrying the weapon, it has a look of fear in its eyes. Paul wonders which of the other two aliens is actually carrying him. His curiosity is satisfied as they change direction and he can see the third alien carrying a weapon. So it is the first alien that he'd seen when he woke up in the craft, who is carrying Paul. He wonders where he is being taken. He hopes it won't take long as the sun is rather hot and aggravating the burnt areas of his skin.
After a while, they enter the building that Paul had walked around last night. They continue to head at speed, once past the entrance. The light becomes somewhat darker. Paul glances up at the ceiling and sees what looks like several dark pipes snaking across in various directions. Paul can feel himself being gently lowered, as his feet touch the ground, he is gently turned around and lead towards a completely black door.
Paul fears the worst, that this is some sort of chamber which will rid these aliens of the troublesome Paul. He struggles to break free from the alien's grasp. Then he catches sight of its face and he can see that same look of concern, that he had seen earlier. The noises the alien is making seem somewhat consoling. Paul cannot really understand why, but he finds that it seems rather senseless to struggle further. Perhaps he feels that this alien means him no harm.